Tactilize @ Learning Innovation Talks (LIT03)

There are so many apps in the Apple App Store and new ones come in hundreds every day.  Which tool is suitable for education?  Which tool is suitable for your lesson?

Well, I discovered one new app called "Tactilize" by chance somewhere last year.  I started looking at it and looked at what others used this app for.  Then I started playing around with it and hey! I loved it more than Prezi! (no offence prezi).

Why do I love it more than prezi?

I love it more than Prezi for several reasons:
#1 : I can get everything onto ONE page + the background of my choice + create the atmosphere I like.
#2 : It doesn't make my audience DIZZY!

Yeah! I have had complaints that after my presentation using Prezi, people get dizzy.  This is due to the panning and zooming.  Until I met Tactilize, I tried to reduce the panning and zooming in my prezi presentations.

Now, with Tactilize, I don't have to worry that my audience/students will get seasick!

Below is the link to the morning session in Learning Innovation Talks (LIT 03) which was done as a fully online session.  The BEST part was...... I presented with my iPad using the WizIQ app! Never been done before and I got the opportunity to do this because my laptop's mic didn't work on that day!  A glitch is a blessing in disguise! 

Click on the link to watch the morning session awesome presenters/speakers.  My presentation is the last for the morning session.
Learning Innovation Talks (LIT 03) Morning Session

And here's the link to the awesome presenters/speakers in the afternoon session.
Learning Innovation Talks (LIT 03) Afternoon session

A video I created to show how Tactilize looks like on the iPad.

So, we have the technology a.k.a the tool, now comes the question of how do we design our lessons using this tool. We must design the lesson to be pedagogically correct for our students so that they would be able to improve on their learning and not just be awed with the new app in the iPad.

To be able to do so, I used Gagne's 9 Events of Instructions: Gagne's 9 Events of Instruction

Using Gagne's 9 Events of Instruction to create one lesson on Aromatic Hydrocarbon using Tactilize.  You can point your cursor to the tiny icons and click on it, the text, video and links will pop up.

Designed on Tactilize (view online)

Tactilize can be used as an educational tool provided we create our lessons using the proper pedagogy such as Gagne's 9 Events of Instruction to engage our students and improve their learning.
A tool alone cannot educate or improve a student's learning.
When a student improves learning using the tool, then the tool is worth using.
What drives learning using any form of tools is pedagogy.

"When the emphasize is on technology, then learning comes second." ~ wise saying.

Differentiated Learning via Technology

John Traxler and Agnes Kukulska-Hulmes (2005) came up with a book entitled Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Educators and Trainers.  Discussions on the latest mobile learning can be found in this book which you can purchase from Amazon.com.

It is an interesting idea to be able to learn at home or at the cafe or at the park or anywhere you choose instead of having to attend a class so early in the morning and going home so late in the evening.  Mobile learning gives the learner a more flexible way of learning new knowledge. Learning taking place at any time is also preferred by most learners. The learners referred to here are young adult learners. Not all learners would be able to sit still for the whole 6 to 8 hours they are in school or any other educational institutions.

The move now is to improve on learners learning which will eventually lead to learners improved achievement.  Our world today is still pretty much exam orientated.  We base a man's worth on his qualifications.  So, paper qualification is still much preferred but it doesn't mean that we impose one way of learning to all learners.  That's where our education system fail miserably.  Look at the number of drop outs.  Look at what happen to them.  Some become society's worse nightmares while some become wealthy entreprenaurs!  How can we improve our learners learning?  What is the core of Education?

In my humble opinion, education is where a person makes meaning of the new things he learned and improves on his understanding of new ideas, then contributes new ideas and keep on learning.  However, each individual processes knowledge differently. Many teachers do not understand this because they were not taught to see their learners as different individuals.  Hence, they teach and are still teaching using a one-size-fits-all teaching method.  Even if they were told about the different individuals in their classes, they were not given sufficient examples on how to deal with differentiation.  This leads to the new teachers teaching the way they were taught.  Learners become frustrated and eventually "spiritually" left the lesson while their physical bodies remained seated in the classroom. 

So, learners process information differently. How different can it get?  Watch this video and you'll understand how different learners understand the same lesson differently.

So now we have understood the different individuals in our classroom, how do we design our lesson to help them improve their learning?  Perhaps this video would shed some light into how to address differentiation in our classroom.

Understanding that our learners are different would assist us in developing or designing lesson plans for differentiated learning. Mobile devices are technology which could improve learning in a differentiated classroom.  Watch this video of a school in the US using technology such as the laptop in their differentiated learning classroom.

Here's another video on planning process in differentiated learning.

Using technology to assist in differentiated learning or differentiated instruction speeds up the planning process for teachers and the learning process for learners.  Young adult learners could access to their modules which suit their Learning Styles using mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

At the end of the day, what counts is not the technology but the understanding of what differentiated learning is all about and how technology can assist teachers/lecturers in planning their lessons for differentiated learning.